


it all breaks down to the role reversal

by firetruck



Category: Free!
Genre: F/M, Gen, the makogou is...secondary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-30
Updated: 2014-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-15 08:36:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2222553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firetruck/pseuds/firetruck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>rin gets a taste of his own medicine when gou stops talking to him. he enlists the help of the iwatobi swim club + sousuke. they are not very helpful</p>
            </blockquote>





	it all breaks down to the role reversal

**Author's Note:**

> something really random gjnsjfns i should be working on my other stories but im NOT im sorry i will get to that soon

“Why are we here again?” 

“Well, Rin asked us for help—“

“I did not ask for _help_ —“

“—and we’re all friends, so we decided to come over and see what the problem is.” 

Haru gave a painful sigh before going back to rolling around a pencil on Rin’s desk. Makoto sat on the floor next to the desk with Nagisa and Rei beside him. Nagisa was currently attempting to show Rei a new freckle he had found under his armpit, much to the disgust of the other boy. Rin sat cross-legged on his bed as Sousuke rested in the bunk above him. Leaning forward, he clicked his tongue on the roof of his teeth and bit out a few words. 

“The problem is Gou. She hasn’t talked to me at all in five days.” 

From above, Sousuke gave out a groan and flung down the book he was trying to read. Makoto suspected that Rin had already tried to go over this topic with Sousuke. 

“Maybe it’s because you’re probably the worst brother ever.” 

“Oh my _God,_ Haru—“

“What the hell did you just say?”

Haru shrugged, more focused on the pencil than in the enraged redhead on the bed behind him.  He didn’t offer any explanation. 

“I am going to _kill_ you, Haru, and I am going to _skin_ y—“ 

“Nagisa, I am not going to look at it! I don’t want to!” 

“But you looked at my last one!” 

“That was because it was on your _hand,_ not under your armpit-“ 

“R-Rin, why don’t you calm down?”

“Can it, Makoto!” 

And he let loose with a series of curses that could’ve put a serious dent in his wallet if his mother’s swear jar was around. Haru still had his back turned, and he didn’t even flinch. _What a piece of shit,_ Rin thought. 

Lazily, Sousuke moved into a sitting position and draped his arms over the railing on his bed. 

“To be fair, Rin, you tried to buy Gou a pair of light-up sneakers for her last birthday.” 

“What does that even have to do with anything?”

“She was turning 17, not 5.” 

Rin grumbled lightly under his breath before backing down. 

“Thankfully, I convinced you to not buy those god-awful shoes. Yet you still managed to fuck up her birthday present.” 

“Ooh, what did you get her, Rin-chan?” 

“Shut up! Stop calling me that, Nagisa!” 

“He got her a purple headband.” 

It was at this moment that Rei clutched a hand to his heart with an incredulous sharp intake of breath. He seemed genuinely offended by Rin’s gift choice, which Nagisa found hilarious. He toppled onto Makoto, who tried to gently push him off but only succeeded in banging his head against the corner of Rin’s desk, which made the pencil slip from Haru’s fingers and almost take Nagisa’s eye out. 

“Rin-san, don’t you know how terribly purple clashes with red? If Gou wore a purple headband with her red hair, it would most definitely not look beautiful!” 

“No wonder I’ve never seen her wear it,” Nagisa mused. 

“Okay, whatever. So purple doesn’t match red. Big deal. That doesn’t explain why she hasn’t been talking to me, though.” 

“Maybe it’s because you gave her a shitty birthday present.” 

“Haru, I swear to—“

Makoto quickly jumped between them, a hand still rubbing his head where he hit it, Sousuke’s low rumble of a laugh coming from the top bunk. 

“U-Um, what was the last thing she said to you, Rin?” 

He changed the topic as fast as he could, eyes automatically flickering to a shadow of movement in the corner of the room, barely registering the fact that the shadow was Nagisa, and said person was currently raiding Rin and Sousuke’s mini-fridge for food, which was not actually a mini-fridge, but in fact a cardboard box. Which was also when he noticed the pair of red glasses on Nagisa’s face and the fact that Rei was stumbling around blindly in an attempt to look for them while wearily calling out for Nagisa to return his glasses. 

“Dunno. Something like ‘bye’? Does it matter?”

“Nah,” Sousuke interjected from his bed. “You just need to tone down your sister complex. We’re not the only people she’s around, you know? She’s probably hanging out with her friends.”

“I do not have a sister complex!” 

Sousuke reached down and hit Rin’s face with his pillow. 

“You kind of do.” 

“You better sleep with your eyes open tonight, because I am going to crawl up there and strangle you in your sleep.” 

“Rin, stop! Violence isn’t the answer. Why don’t we try to think about this logically and come up with plausible solutions to why Gou hasn’t been in contact with Rin?” 

“Fine. You first, then.” 

Makoto dropped his hands back into his lap, taking a breather. Relieved, he returned his attention to his friends. 

“She’s probably busy,” he suggested not-so-helpfully. Haru rolled his eyes and everyone stifled a groan. 

“Maybe she’s sick of hanging around you,” Haru muttered. 

“Kou-san could be studying for exams?” 

“She’s probably hanging out with her friends.” 

“Or maybe she’s on a date! Or maybe even more than one date! Maybe Gou-chan has a boyfriend now!” 

Rin stiffened and Makoto groaned inwardly. Rei took this chance to snatch his glasses back, almost tripping on a wad of paper on the floor. 

“No way. She would totally tell me if it were something like that.” 

“She doesn’t have to tell you everything,” Sousuke said, raising an eyebrow. “You’re not her mom.” 

“Hey, Rin-chan, why do you have an album full of pictures of Gou-chan?” 

“Stop looking through my stuff, you brat!” 

“See? What did I tell you? Total siscon.” 

Makoto looked helplessly at Haru, who only shot him an amused glance before going back to drawing on Rin’s desk. 

“What if she’s dating Mikoshiba-san?” 

“That’s what I was thinking, Rei-chan! But which one?” 

“Neither!” Rin barked, agitated. “She already told me she doesn’t have a crush on anyone.” 

Haru did not miss the way Makoto slumped a bit after hearing that, his face looking just a bit crestfallen for a second before snapping back to an easy-going smile. 

“Oh, yeah?” Sousuke called down, challenging Rin. “Then why did she tell _me_ that she does?”

Makoto perked up a tiny bit. 

“Wait, I know why,” he continued, “it’s because you’re a crazy brother who’s overprotective and won’t let her near any guy who is not you.” 

Finishing with an unnecessary z-snap that no one but Makoto saw (he was the only one that actually bothered to look at Sousuke when he spoke), Sousuke went back to his book. Rin did the tongue-click thing again and kicked the top of his bed, which was also the bottom of Sousuke’s, which resulted in the book flying out of his hands and onto Rei’s shoulder, who screamed. 

“Jeez, Sousuke, who pissed in your cereal today?” 

“I thought he acted like that every day,” Haru deadpanned. 

“Shut up, Water Boy.” 

“That was really lame,” Nagisa chimed in while patting Rei’s shoulder. 

“I think we’re getting off topic again, guys..” 

“That’s because no one here understands girls.”

“I understand girls! I understand my sister.” 

Haru set his pencil down, turning around in his chair and giving Rin the _look._ The look that said, _Very funny. Nice try, asshole._ Unfortunately, Rin didn’t ‘get’ the various looks Haru had, so all he saw was Haru staring very intensely at him without a trace of emotion on his face. Rei spoke up. 

“Rin-san, I’m pretty sure that if you understood Kou-san, you wouldn’t have needed to call us over here today.” 

Sousuke snorted and Rin kicked the bed again. 

“Whatever. I know for sure she’s not on a date though, because that fucking stalker Seijuuro is currently in Tokyo with Momotarou and their sister. And anyone else that she might go on a date with,” he glared pointedly at everyone in the room, even giving the bed another kick for good measure, “is here.” 

Sousuke mumbled something about Rin’s ‘damage’ before yawning. Nagisa and Rei rubbed their chins thoughtfully, although the former might just have doing it to imitate the latter. Haru tapped the pencil on the desk, having finished his sketch, before grabbing Rin’s pencil case and beginning to go through it. Makoto hummed as he thought. 

“Are you sure she hasn’t mentioned anything to you?” 

“Duh.

“But are you positive?” 

“Christ. Yes, Makoto. Lay off, alright?” 

“Sorry.” 

Rin sighed before grabbing a pillow from his bed and placing it behind his back. 

“I just don’t get it, you know? Gou always sticks close to me. I could text her and she’d text back so fast it’s like she was waiting for me to text her!” 

Haru rolled his eyes and exchanged a look with Makoto. Apparently, everyone except Rin knew that Gou was always waiting for his texts. 

“And now, suddenly, she’s just not there anymore. I texted her two days ago. She hasn’t even texted back. Or read the text.” 

“I think that’s okay, though,” Nagisa cut him off. 

“I mean, you always ignored Gou-chan, especially after you came back from Austroland!” 

“Australia,” Rei corrected. 

“Right. That. She would even come talk to me about it sometimes!” He was waving his arms in the air for emphasis. “She seemed really sad about it, saying how she missed you and how you were different from when you were younger.” He got up in Rin’s face and shook him by the shoulders. “She almost cried once, Rin-chan.” Nagisa bounced back and took a seat on the floor again. 

“She would..talk to you about that? And she almost cried? In front of you?” 

“Uh-huh!” 

Rin groaned, messing a bit with his hair, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Look, I know I screwed things up. And I was a really shitty brother and I wasn’t there for her. But that’s why I care so much now. Because I’m trying to change. I’m trying to get better. For her sake, and for mine.” 

Rei started clapping. 

“That was beautiful, Rin-san! A very touching speech,” he said, motioning to flick a tear or two away from his eyes. 

“You should’ve started thinking like that a long time ago,” Haru rolled his eyes. 

“I’m proud of you, Rin!” Makoto cooed. 

“Shut up, you guys.” 

“I’ll talk with Gou on Monday, by the way. And ask her. About not talking to you.” 

“Wait, Haru, what?”

Haru sniffed, rubbing his nose, shrugging again. 

“I said I’ll talk to Gou on Monday.” 

“How do you know you’ll see her then?” Rin demanded. 

“We go to the market every Monday.” 

“What?! Why??” 

“To buy food.” 

“Does anyone else know about this?” 

Makoto, Nagisa, Rei, and Sousuke all shook their heads. 

“What the hell?” 

Haru just shrugged again and started adding something to the desk drawing. Makoto could only stare at him. He didn’t know about this either, which surprised him. Containing his questions, spoke again. 

“Well, it would be good opportunity to ask Gou why she hasn’t talked with Rin!” 

The sound of a rushing waterfall suddenly sounded in the room and everyone except Makoto shot straight up. Rin was yelling about a leak in the bathroom, and Nagisa swore that this was how they were going to die. 

“Calm down, everyone! It’s just Haru’s ringtone,” Makoto tried to reassure everyone.  

Sousuke gave Haru a weird look, muttering something that sounded like ‘what the fuck’, whereas Rin actually said it out loud. Haru picked up his phone and answered it. Everyone went dead silent. 

“Hi, Kou.” 

“Why the hell is she calling him?” Rin seethed very quietly, and Makoto was wondering the same thing, albeit with much less anger. 

“Okay. I’ll tell them. Bye, Kou. See you next Monday.”

He hung up and slipped his phone back into his pocket. 

“So? What did she say?” 

“She won’t be able to come to the market this Monday. And she’ll have to miss the café opening on Tuesday with Nagisa. She can’t study with Rei this Wednesday, and she’ll have to move shopping with Sousuke to next week.” 

“Aww,” Nagisa pouted, “I was looking forward to the café opening!” 

Makoto frowned a little bit. It seemed like Gou had plans with everyone except for him. Did she not like him? He was also worried about Rin, who looked like he was about to explode, bite off everyone’s head, or both. 

“Why is she even going to the market with Haru—“

“To buy food.”

“—stupid café opening with Nagisa—“

“We both wanted to try the new cake!” 

“—damn study session with Rei—“ 

“Good grades are very important, Rin-san!”

“—and a shopping trip with Sousuke?!” 

“I have strong arms. I carry all her bags.”

Rin slumped as a sharp ping sounded from Haru’s pocket again. 

“It’s a text message from Kou,” he announced, and everyone scrambled to look. 

[Kou: make sure to tell everyone i love them and to keep up the training regimen so their muscles stay strong! fighting! i’ll be back from my trip next week! ヽ(*≧ω≦)ﾉ] 

“Rin, she’s going on a trip..” 

“She didn’t tell me!” 

Sousuke had grabbed Rin’s phone and unlocked it, opening it up to his messages with Gou. 

“Yeah, she did. And she even told you to tell us. Do you even read your texts?” 

“Well..”

“That’s what I thought. Anyway, ‘problem’ solved. You happy now?” 

Rin really wanted to strangle him. 

Makoto noticed the drawing on Rin’s desk right around the same time Rin did. Stomping to his desk, he shoved Haru away and looked at the drawing. Haru had drawn Gou in some cutesy pose, with her sticking out her tongue and holding up a peace sign. Shoujo sparkles littered the air around her head and a speech bubble proclaimed, “I love you, nii-chan~!” 

Haru patted him on the shoulder once. 

“You’re welcome, siscon.” 

Makoto pitied Rin. He looked like he was about to cry. 

“All of you..just…go home,” he grumbled before shoving his face in his pillow. With an amused grunt, Sousuke waved goodbye to them as Makoto ushered Haru out the door and Nagisa tumbled after them with Rei. 

“See you soon, Rin.” 

Rin lifted his middle finger at them. 

 

///Bonus Ending/// 

 

Only when he arrived home and collapsed on his bed did Makoto realize that he had left his phone on his nightstand by accident. Not expecting any messages, he picked it up to check anyways, raising his eyebrows in surprise at the name that flashed across his screen. His hands suddenly felt clammy and his throat closed up. He felt like his heart was going to jump right out of his mouth as he read the text. 

[Kou: hey, makoto, do you wanna get dinner together when i get back? just the two of us; it’ll be fun! ＼(^▽^＠)ノ]

[Makoto: i’d love to! see you then!]

**Author's Note:**

> comments (and kudos) really make my day so pls leave some!! thanks!


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